Bright lights dot many oilfields due to the common practice of burning off natural gas during oil/gas drilling and production to release pressure – a process called flaring. An estimated one-third of the natural gas produced during the fracking boom in North Dakota’ Bakken oilfield was flared (Fortune, K. Fehrenbacher, July 13 2016). These flares are essentially burning money.
Using a supermaterial, a start-up company called Alphabet Energy has developed a solid-state technology to convert the exhaust heat of an enclosed flare into electricity. A well pad operator can offset thousands of dollars per month that would have been spent on generator fuel, rental and maintenance cost – all while ensuring reliability. Further, the generation of 2.5 kW of electricity with this technology is enough for operators to optimize production and ensure site safety by running a variety of site electronics (i.e., process equipment and SCADA)(M.Pahl, Vice President, Alphabet Energy).
The substitution of this new technology will reduce methane emissions and will eliminate diesel and natural-gas powered generators as sources of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gases. An initial installation is present in Ohio’s Utica Shale region with follow-on installations at Encana overseas operations
